Am picking up one of these in beater condition just cause it was cheap, and I've always heard they weren't bad pistols.

Anyone have any experience with these?
Or with pro mag magazines for them?

And, of course, leads on back up parts?

Thanks,
Ella

Thanks.

I have owned several and they are good little pistols. Actually I have one in the classifieds but not because it is a bad pistol, just churning the collection. Jack First gun parts has parts. Mags have not been an issue for me.

Back up parts? not sure! They are good little guns. Back when they 1st came out, I had one of the rare CCW permits, and it was one of the two guns I had on the permit to carry. Only time ^ closest I ever came to shooting a man I was packing one of those, armed with Black Talon Ammo, IIRC.

But, I wax Poetic. It is a great little gun, very little felt recoil - duracoat it and you will be fine

brief search:
http://www.gun-parts.com/star/

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Models.aspx?catid=404

I might have to get one of those t-shirts
http://www.star-firearms.com/star/index.shtml

I have had one for 15 years, and they are good little pistols, but kind of heavy for concealed carry. Might be good for the glove box or someone with tiny hands.

Thanks for the tips. And feel free to poeticize.

The one I'm waiting on is the single stack version. I got pretty small hands.

Any experience with pro mag magazines at all? I mostly have revolvers and not much experience with after market magazine manufacturers' reputations.

Ella

All steel, rather heavy by modern standards, but it also means they�re nice to shoot. Accuracy wise they�ll stick right with any full sized 9mm pistol made, they�re damn fine shooters. If you hold with your thumb over the safety like many hold single action pistols, you�ll find the grip doesn�t accommodate that hold well at all (can be downright painful). If you hold with a low thumb locked down on the grip, you�ll find the grip is very nice indeed. Most were outfitted with simple 3 dot sights. In all my years, I�ve actually never seen one of these malfunction, they�re VERY reliable. Magazines are a bit spendy, but if you got into the gun right and you decide it�s a keeper as a truck gun or backup; then that takes the sting out of spending $40 or more on a magazine.

Back in the �80�s these were a very hot ticket and I was going to get one come hell or high water until a friend brought me an Astra A70 which I liked even better. But you can rest assured, the Star Firestar is a top quality pistol that is very reliable, very accurate and will serve you well. What�s more, they�re typically pretty cheap; nice.

I dont care what anyone ever says Star pistols are first rate. They are good guns. The firestar was very innovative for its time and built to last. I had one for about a year then traded it for some other pistol...I wish I hadnt....the Firestar would eat any ammo I gave it. Heavy gun...its one flaw....but wow did it work well....you will enjoy it.

I agree with everything said above, except that I didn't find the Firestar's weight to be a hindrance to concealed carry.

I gave up my Firestar when I replaced it with a Kahr K9. I wouldn't have done it for anything less - and often regret having given it up. I'm always on the lookout for another in good shape, but they don't turn up often - and when they do, they've generally been thrashed (but still work!).

I really liked mine and feel the same! I got the Star PD (which I shot & enjoyed earlier today!) when I was looking for a firestar in .40, and hope to get one in .40 over the course of the next year.

In the reliability and general quality department I'd say the Firestar has Kahr beat. I've seen many a Kahr, both good and bad. When they're good, they're really nice. When they're bad, they're frustrating, but generally Kahr will make it right.

But I can honestly say, I've NEVER seen a bad Firestar. Never seen a Firestar that wouldn't churn through most anything you could reasonably throw at it. Like JamesDunn says, it's a very good quality pistol.

Lucky for me, my K9 was very good.

Funny thing is, I don't have it anymore either. My preference has gone back to SA autos or DA revolvers for general use, so I gifted it to #1 son. Had I kept the Firestar, I would be carrying it often now - and yes, mine was accurate, easy to shoot well, and never malfunctioned...ever.

Shameless pitch for the Firestar Plus I have listed in the classifieds.

Finally got around to picking up this pistol. All the positive comments made me excited to try it out. But I'm having trouble with the safety, it's real hard to get on and off. Anyone know how to remove it? I'd like to see if there's not a burr or something in there. I've found lots of advice about being careful of falling parts, but no instructions on removing the levers. Any tips would be appreciated.

The things fits my hand real nice. I want to get it shooting. The price I paid, I can afford to mess around with it a little.

Thanks,
Ella

For what it is worth, I have a 45 Firestar that is very accurate, the bullets touch at 9 yards, little recoil with the 230g Federal Hydroshock....never jammed.

Buddy has one in pristine condition that probably doesn't even have a hundred rounds through it. Won't give it up though but he's thinking about buying a Cooper so might have a chance yet.

Take of the grip panel, should be two screws on the back and when off, rotate the safety down and it will reveal the detent and spring, careful not to launch or lose the detent or spring. Hold your thumb over it when rotating the safety and you should not launch it. I would think a little cleaning would fix it.

Thanks, supercrewd.

I think I got a problem. The safety won't come off at all now. I soaked it solvent overnight. I can wiggle the safety levers but when rotating down the mechanism seems to hit something solid. And if I can't rotate down, I can't remove the durn thing to see what's going on. Knew there had to be a hitch with this thing.

Any suggestions, before I take it to a smith. I sure do like the weight and ergonomics.



Ella

sounds like an issue with that detent and spring, but that is a totally undeduacted guess....or as the White House calls it. Firm Policy

iambrb,
I suspicion you're right, but I'm not sure how to get at the problem....

Ella

The detent is probably keeping the safety from rotating down, you can try to get something in there to press the spring down?

I messed with it some, then took it to the smith. Despite the low initial sales cost, the seller offered to cover some of the repair! I'm hoping I don't have to try and track down parts.

Will report back when I hear something. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Ella

As surmised, the spring had jammed in the safety plunger. Got that sorted out.

Took the pistol to the range, and I'll be danged if I could get more than three shots off without jamming--both the factory and the pro mag magazines. Every time the same thing: the empty case was sitting half in the chamber jamming into the next round in the mag. Just some cheapo bulk 9mm ball, but still.

Now I gotta decide whether it's worth messing with further or just offload the thing for someone who needs parts.

Ella

Now you know why it was cheap! Is it not ejecting the empty?

You get what you pay for. I'm a sucker for a deal sometimes. Yeah, it's not ejecting the empty. But ejector and extractor look good. The finish is kinda beat but the innards look pretty ok. Maybe I'll try to swap the recoil spring see if that helps, and if not, send it down the road.

Ella

I would guess the extractor is requiring some love. Try it with some other ammo before giving up on it.

I might swap recoil springs and extractors just to see, before giving up. I was hoping for something that would just run no fuss, no muss.

I traded off a S&W 915 some months back that this was supposed to replace. The 915 had a little too fat a grip for my hands, but dang if it wouldn't shoot anything anytime under any conditions.

Ella

Update:

Extractor couldn't be found (naturally), but the smith at a local shop thought he could improve things, which it turns out he could. He polished the chamber and "recut" the extractor. I put in a new recoil spring, and today we went through half a dozen mags of factory loads ranging from 110 Blasers to 147 grain Winchester hollow points, with nary a hitch.

I've now got between $200 and $250 in a gun which isn't too pretty on the outside. But it's a neat little pistol and I'm glad I got it running.

Thanks for the tips and encouragements.

Ella

Humph
When I was commenting on the P9S in another thread I was thinking I had owned another 9mm pistol in the past.

This is it, seemed to be well made, fired one magazine of 356402s through it for the lowest ES I have ever measured and sold it.

Fed those cast truncated cones like it was made for it.

One magazine fired though a gun does not give a person much of an idea what the gun is like, but it did not have a cylinder or tip-up barrel so did not hold my interest for long.

Glad to see you got it running! Still not too much invested for a working gun.

I thought I was done with this project and thread, but I just received an email from a guy I wrote to in Spain, Jorge at Ipar, saying they have lots of new/unused Star parts, including extractors, for sale. Takes cash or paypal. If anyone wants the email address, PM me and I'll send it....

"We have plenty of original, factory new extractors for the M43, available
at $40 including new spring and pin.

Minimum shipping from Spain is $15, enough to ship several small parts. We
take Paypal for payments, you can also mail cash, will give you details
for the preferred method.

Thank you, take care,

Jorge
IPARGUNS MANUFACTURA DE ARMAS S.L."

Thanks to iambrb for putting me on the right track,

Ella

Thanks for the lead on parts....great work

Jack First gun parts had some last time I needed to fix one. I can look up the part no. if you need it.

I have 2 of these Super SMs in .380. My 13-year old loves them.

http://www.star-firearms.com/firearms/guns/s/images/SSM-Supers-L.jpg


http://www.star-firearms.com/firearms/guns/s/index.shtml